That's awesome!! Good for him. I confess I have always had troubles, prejudices, with the Mormons, maybe because they were all things I hated about my own religion, but their doctrine was even Weirder! Lol
FayeDunaway
JoinedPosts by FayeDunaway
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Guess what I just got in the mail?
by Question_Mans_interpretation ini got an invitation from an ex mormon bishop to come learn how to witness to mormons.
this guy is brave, he even invited the current local mormon bishop to attend.
here's his website leebaker.4mormon.org.
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Seeking support during confusing and stressful 'cognitive dissonance'
by LHS123 insorry for the long post but i need help.
ive been a jw for 20 years - still active and attending meetings, baptised at 18, i have recently become very dissillusioned.
a few reasons: ill treatment of my kids by a prominent 'assembly speaker' elder, then my son left the truth at 15 (not baptised) and was 'dropped' instantly, despite this community having been his whole life for 15 years.
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FayeDunaway
Oh honey I know, it's scary and there are so many HUGE uncertainties ahead, especially with your husband as a strong witness, eek. When I knew I wanted to leave the religion I was so desperate, I thought about leaving my husband and fighting for my kids later. But ultimately he chose me over the religion and followed me out. He eventually saw that it was just a great delusion, and had always had issues with the witness culture of pressure to conform and to keep up. But it was really scary for a while. Along the way I developed a relationship with Jesus, just by reading the bible on my own. He helped me find the right path and I will always be grateful!! My husband didn't follow me into my new church, but he's very happy to be living independently now of elders breathing on his neck :). He also is quite political. We don't talk about his spirituality, but he is happy and I don't pressure him to come the way I went. This will be a rocky path for you, but maybe he is seeing how they are treating your son and will choose family over cult as well. Read the bible together, especially the New Testament, without witness publications. Maybe this will open his eyes. -
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Seeking support during confusing and stressful 'cognitive dissonance'
by LHS123 insorry for the long post but i need help.
ive been a jw for 20 years - still active and attending meetings, baptised at 18, i have recently become very dissillusioned.
a few reasons: ill treatment of my kids by a prominent 'assembly speaker' elder, then my son left the truth at 15 (not baptised) and was 'dropped' instantly, despite this community having been his whole life for 15 years.
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FayeDunaway
LHS, believe me, most if not all, of us are NOT from satan. I can honestly tell you that since leaving the witnesses (and I did it slowly) and joining another church, I am a better, less selfish, more spiritual person. You sound very similar to me, with similar doubts. I used to read the context of scriptures too and saw how they twisted them to suit their own means. To me, the scriptures were much more beautiful IN their contexts! And their meanings were much more simple, and surprise, a whole lot more like 'christendom'.
Tell me, is your husband a witness and if so, what is he like? Is this the same husband you suffered abuse from, or is this your second marriage? If I was you I would definitely celebrate your sons 16 th birthday!! it sounds like your 14 year old may have already gotten baptized? She can still fade out too in either case. Try to encourage her to do things with friends from school, join a club etc. really, that is the most important thing for her right now.
Your life is about to get better! I am hoping your husband makes this easy for you by agreeing with you. Let us know. That will make a big difference. I managed to bring my whole immediate family with me and they are all happy to be out of it, and one of my children was 14 at the time and resistant to change. Then, she made a lot of friends at school and has a boyfriend and is so so glad to be out.
Holidays don't bother me at all, it's just witness extremism. Research doctrinal issues from websites. Just type in doctrines and see what comes up. Get your purple interlinear out. Get another Bible too. I believe in evolution as well, as part of the creative process. Fundamentalism is not important, many parts of the Bible are from a human perspective and for an ancient mindset. Jesus explains who God really is, he is the exact image of him.
There is definitely life after the witnesses! You will not miss anything about them, except family who are still in. See what you can do to start living now! But save money for retirement!
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Bible Students Are NOW CONSIDERED JEHOVAHS WITNESSES
by Blackfalcon98 inoh my, while attending one of the boasting sessions.....an elder made reference to recent changes in watchtower terminology.
of these changes, he mentioned that bible students are now considered to be jehovah's witnesses!
this shocked me, so i was wondering have anyone else heard of this new change?
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FayeDunaway
Um, yes I also hear they are going to stop celebrating Christmas!! And there are rumors that some people won't be going to heaven, but will hope to live forever in paradise on earth!! What is going on?!?
edited....lol....now I get it :) bible students! Not Bible Students.
I wonder if the hapless study has any idea they would be considered as such already.
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Three elders show up "to encourage me" after 10 years!
by Wasanelder Once in"hey brother wasa, come on back to the meetings.
" (after 10 years) so i respond that the situation with pedophiles is out of hand.
they tell me "we" elders have received tons of training on the subject, its not like it was 10 years ago.
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FayeDunaway
Phizzy, maybe a memorial invite, if it was a few weeks ago? Either way, mrs. Phizzy handled it beautifully! -
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Three elders show up "to encourage me" after 10 years!
by Wasanelder Once in"hey brother wasa, come on back to the meetings.
" (after 10 years) so i respond that the situation with pedophiles is out of hand.
they tell me "we" elders have received tons of training on the subject, its not like it was 10 years ago.
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FayeDunaway
I can't believe they came to bug you after 10 years! Desperation? -
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They're spying me on facebook
by cookiemaster inmost of you have probably seen the apostasy trial video posted on youtube (and all over social media) recently.
well, there's a "wordly" woman from another country that i had worked with some time ago and she's posted it, tagged me, and asked "wtf?
", knowing i'm a still a jw just for family reasons.
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FayeDunaway
Yup I had two accounts too when I was fading. It was really a great way to find old friends who had left the religion! I don't know what I would have done without their support!! Now I hardly go on fb anymore, I've graduuated :) but was pretty heavily addicted for a while. -
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How to Choose a Wife!
by snugglebunny inback in the day, when my family moved to a new congregation, i fell head over heels with a young sister who was an elder's daughter.
it wasn't long before we were talking about marriage and i was contemplating buying her an engagement ring.
my parents were not happy at all.
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FayeDunaway
Joe that story is witness lore, the version I heard is someone was baptized because he liked a witness girl. She tested him and said 'go throw your service bag in Lake Erie and I'll marry you.' He did, and failed her test. -
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Disowning the God of the OT is not an Option
by cofty init's to their credit that many modern christians prefer the jesus of the gospels to the god of the old testament.. ot god is an embarrassment.
i am not going to list his multitude of moral crimes here but my personal favourite is his brilliant idea that a girl who is raped must marry her rapist.
it's not his biggest crime but it demonstrates a disregard for human feelings that is beyond the comprehension of every moral person.
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FayeDunaway
I will own up to this and admit that I have always had issues with YHWH, used to read David's scripture of (paraphrasing here) how he wished to delight in slamming the heads of his enemies' children against the rocky crag, etc. etc. with absolute disgust...how can we teach this is a God of love, who endorses or often causes these things? How can we praise him for his love but not acknowledge his hatred or neglect too? At a church retreat we were asked to write a poem about God, and mine was filled with questioning his justice, it was right after the Tsunami in Japan. I read it aloud and people loved it, that I was so honest, and many said they also have the same questions.
Cofty I DO have issues with him. I do not however think it's bad to question him and demand justice, Abraham did this, and Job if I recall correctly. I even have a few small issues with Jesus. I am not a fundamentalist or complete Bible literalist so that helps.
It's kind of like marriage. I have issues with my husband too. And I have my own issues that make staying married a challenge. It's worth it to work through them to stay married.
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How a Gay Jewish Boy from New England Came to Be and Leave the JWs (and what he did next)
by CalebInFloroda inborn in cambridge, ma to a liberal couple that escaped the conservative south, my parents raised me better than to become a jehovahs witness.
funny thing was they got mixed up in it first.. while that is a story for another time, i myself had to go along as the third of five children in my family.
dads job transferred him to texas and my mom worked fulltime herself, but eventually we found ourselves drinking the kool-aid of ambiguity intolerance and full-fledge belief that the bible was literal fact and that salvation was found only by those who were smart enough to enter the confines of the watchtower.. its weird how many people claim they fear children raised by two gay parents will grow up to be gay.
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FayeDunaway
Well Caleb I think I am finally (mostly) appeased and will stop asking nosy questions for now :). I do just want to say your unique insights will be very valuable here and you are amazing.